Soviet Log 72
If you can't beat them, beguile them We picked up the action on the outskirts of the farm where Danikov and the other mercenaries were holed up. We didn't have much of a plan but when we saw that they were reaching for their radios to call for reinforcements it forced our hands. Roq managed to jam their radio transmissions, which they noticed, and we jumped into Initiative. The Steampunk Arab commander also said later that he was not jammed, (magic probably?), and that his reinforcements were about a day away. The thugs all dropped into pre-initiative stealth and we began moving closer to the farm. Roq took the lead with a brave charge across the courtyard to the front doors. She was calling for help the whole way but the rest of us were moving in more cautiously - especially when it became apparent that there were a dozen or so mercenaries within the farmhouse. Katya tried to avoid a confrontation by calling for parley on her built-in loudspeaker - but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Eva activated Scarlet and joined the battle. The cowboy hit Boris with a blast from his AP20 EMP Bleed12 DR43(IIRC) transforming gun. He probably thought he was being clever hitting a Drone with an EMP blast but the joke was on him since his weapon simply bypassed Boris' AC and obliterated him. Roq continued her charge toward the front door where she came upon enemy resistance. They unleashed a group of a dozen or so summoned minions on us from broken elixir bottles. A gunman also opened fire with a devastating attack from a magical-mutating-weapon doing Bleed 12. Roq ran past the minions and over to the front door where she began picking the lock. Eva and Kat had also moved into the courtyard by now - Kat able to keep up with the equine fiber enthusiasts from riding the Go Board "back to the future" style. Things moved pretty fast from this point, although we were still in the first round of combat. Roq got the front door open and charged into the farmhouse where she went up against a big Steampunk Arab mercenary. Despite Roq's well know levels of 'Charm', she was also unable to convince him to open a parlay. Beyond the big mercenary, Danikov and the Cowboy lurked. Outside, Eva and Kat were up against a crowd of those summoned minions, and dropped in the the Paired Combat Twerking position, ass to ass. As the minions started attacking with disturbingly precise stunning attacks and soon had Eva surrounded. Unfortunately Eva was occupied elsewhere because on the other side of the building Scarlet was making little hot holes in a mercenary that had spotted the group moving in. It was about now that Kat thought she'd try a new strategy. The 'fight until we charm' strategy. She felt a little 'shock and awe' was in order so she let loose with her pistol that Rasputin had kindly charged up before we left Moscow. It turned out that lvl 12 Hard Wind was particularly effective at clearing minions so she blasted her way inside. Leaving a few stragglers for Eva who wiped them out once she had finished off the flanking mercenary. Once inside, Kat took a brutal critical from the Cowboy that bypassed her armour for 50 DR direct to her personal. Kat couldn't even reflect the damage since he had simultaneously rolled a crit defend as Katya swept the room with Hard Wind in the same segment. Bleeding profusely (Bleed 12) and with most of the mercenaries still prone Katya knew it was time for a hail-mary to end the fight before she succumbed to her wounds. She slid around Roq and the big mercenary still battling on the dining table and over to Danikov. She was still flat on her back from the last Hard-Wind, so Kat automounted her, stuck a knife to her neck, leaned in close, and told her to call off the mercenaries before someone got hurt. It was a long-shot that looked to go nowhere when Kat critically failed the Beguile, however, thanks to her new Charmer speciality she got to reroll and the dice gods were kind to us when it came up as a natural 20 the second time! From there, everyone stopped fighting and got a lot more talkative. We confirmed our suspicions that they had been hired by the Church to gather artifacts. They didn't know why but they had lots of useful info about the current whereabouts of the relics. It took some convincing they they came around to the idea that summoning the Herald and the ensuing 'end times' was not great for their livelihood (or lives). They told us that it might be hard to back out of the contract but they would do what they could to help us. Specifically Danikov, and the Cowboy both said they would help us while the Steampunk Arab, said he would help if he could but that his superiors were not likely to give a shit about how hot Katya was at that moment (or something to that effect). From there we did a bit of planning, spent the night and then set out into the city to investigate the Cathedral where the relics were being stored. Eva, Roq, and the rest of the girls staked out the place to learn what they could of its defenses. Katya and Giacomo had wonderful day on the town gathering info. In summary, the Cathedral is protected by strong arch magic including a magical shroud and high-tech field system that encloses the main building. Both of these appear to be able to detect who we are and prevent, (or punish?), entry. The shroud prevents any scrying of the inside, as apparently the building itself also 'exists in two worlds' and traverses a leyline it resides on periodically. Additionally, while It may look like the Relics are displayed on the main floor but, those ones are just decoys. The real relics are actually stored in the first of two basement levels, which are mostly crypts and storage. The Cathedral is closed from the public; nobody comes or goes. Lastly, the Nazis had a squad in town under the command of Fritz. They were operating out of a building downtown but we didn't get too close for fear of alerting them. We put together a rough plan to secure the Cathedral in place using a modified version of Roq's Ley-Line Nanites. Then we will bluff our way in under the cover story that Katya and Liesolette crafted and then planted in the church bureaucracy. We should be allowed to enter when the magical defences see us as legit thanks to Lilyana's arch-false aura and Eva's false field tech. Once inside, we will descend to the basement using the stairs near the altar, grab the relics, and either blast our way out to the sewers via the crypts or flee back out the front-door. After a busy day of planning and spying we returned back to the park where Danikov's gang had hid their flying jalopy the day before. We thought it would be a reasonably safe since it was out of the way so we set about arguing over who would take watch. Eventually, Katya volunteered (she's used to it) so everyone settled in for the night. In hindsight, it's probably a good thing that it was Katya that took the watch and an 'active approach' to it. Midway through block 6 she detected an enemy force, (The Italian Army? Nazis? Worse?), in the park, who were moving to surround us. She woke everyone up and that's where we called it. Note for Kano: Burned 1 Sultan Cake Rewards 1 Combat 11 Generic Points Katya 3 Random Points and 1 Benny Eva 1 Benny Category:Soviet